The Superior Human?

The Superior Human?

2012, Nature  -   456 Comments
8.19
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Ratings: 8.19/10 from 90 users.

The Superior Human?Documentary which systematically challenges the common human belief that humans are superior to other life forms. The Superior Human reveals the absurdity of this belief while exploding human bias.

The world is an amazing place. It is filled with billions of life forms of various sizes and shapes. According to some, the most amazing life forms on the planet must be humans.

They believe humans have revealed their astounding superiority over all other life forms with their many key traits and special abilities.

In this film, we will journey through a list of highly referenced points, sourced from a variety of individuals and resources, that support the supposed inherent superiority of humans.

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Jane
Jane
3 years ago

We don't use telethapy. All other animals do. And we are not as consciously aware as other Animals, we spend to much time list on thought.

Daniel Stagliano
Daniel Stagliano
4 years ago

I believe a diffetence between humans and animals ultimately comes down to the ability for abstraction, or thinking outside of logic or instinct for pleasure, inspiration, or social reward, as in the telling of a joke.

rukia
rukia
7 years ago

The human superiority complex is exclusively a male behavior even in written religious books states that women are inferior to men and political rotten green old men once said that women are inferior animals, lower than dogs.The human superiority is not only a negative mentality exclusive to other living organisms it's inclusive to our own from gender to racial form . Human arrogance and superiority is base on fear and phobia of the unknown -of what it can't be controlled, comprehend and dominate and Nature can't be dominated.

@IWAuction
@IWAuction
8 years ago

The reasons human beings are superior living things include its huge population; communicable languages and written records; intelligence in inventing; and progressed from primitive to civilization. Animals possess, perhaps a lower level of, these elements too. Except for not able to organize to the form and size of living like human beings, animal have own rights of way (unless they turn wild to attack human) to live harmonically alongside with human. I think this may be the message that the documentary is delivering. This is a great film but somehow lacks a bit of explicit objective.

Jeewhizz
Jeewhizz
8 years ago

Never seen so many straw men in one place before!

Jay Cullen
Jay Cullen
10 years ago

Incredible how so many people are closed minded and miss the point of this great documentary. It's as simple as this - we really aren't all that. It's our own perception. Get it out of the mind that there's a goal for humans, a path or some need for us on the earth. That's the false perception. Strip away the notion that we're responsible for anything besides sensible morals and sadly reparation of the things we've already managed to f--k up on the planet.

Exist and enjoy that, procreate (enjoy that), don't hurt or destroy things needlessly and clean up after yourselves before you die. It's quite straightforward and rational.

Daniel Way
Daniel Way
10 years ago

Since when are the words dominion and superiority synonyms? We indeed do have dominion over the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea as well as the animals on land. We are responsible for the life of this planet and are called to nurture and even enhance the life on Earth. We hold incredible capacities to destroy life as well I need not remind you. Our role on earth is different from other species and reflects dominion not superiority as we are dependent entirely on nature. I respect your argument, but I ask that you please refrain from assaults on biblical scripture, they hold no substance.

Alex
Alex
10 years ago

We poison our air and water to weed out the weak! We set off fission bombs in our only biosphere! We nailed our God to a stick! Don't fu*k with the human race!

Humans are Superior!

Inferior
Inferior
10 years ago

We were never meant to be the ruler of the world as we lack the basic tools such as tolerance, coexistence, understanding, patience. We are good at creating problems but when it comes to solve them we fail miserably. We have brought ourselves along with the only home for all living form to a danger turn and we do not even know how to reverse the mistake we made instead we are busy messing the world even further. I came to learn about the subject when i was exposed to a great book called 'Ishmael' written by Daniel Quinn. It opened my eyes and gave me a taste of our own disgusted existence filled with greed and will of possessions. Our earth would be better off without the worst creature of it. Humans.

bumpercrop
bumpercrop
10 years ago

The doc explains Descartes/Cartesian philosophy as it pertains to modern
human supremacist consciousness. The doc provided excellent examples
of specific, biological behaviors and abilities of a variety of animals which have superior function to humans. I found parts of the doc to be very funny. The narrator's voice is soothing and gentle. The doc is a courageous plea for humans to please wake up.

Gary
Gary
10 years ago

This documentary is r*tarded. I wonder what made the creators of it absolutely despise humans so much; they just keep making a bunch of irrelevant, biased points. Humans are obviously the most intelligent and creative animals. We have the most complex structures on the planet. You can't compare the size of a termite mound to that of a skyscraper because when you're dealing with things as small as grains of sand things get a lot easier.

This documentary went full r*tard and was just made to attract hippie, self hating nimrods.

winston
winston
11 years ago

Chimps have short term memories that far, far exceed human capabilities (it's quite astonishing how good it is in them) and dogs can smell cancer and explosive residues...Some whales have global sonar, and so on.
I find it a little silly to compare human animal vs animals traits as if there were some kind of competition. There is none, we win hands down where it counts; of being at the top of the food chain. Of advanced weaponry and understanding of the universe. Animals, like nature, continually do amazing things. There's a whole universe in a single cell really.

N
N
11 years ago

It is self realization and the knowledge of our own death.

Stephen Lucker Kelly
Stephen Lucker Kelly
11 years ago

Thanks for this amazing Documentary!

aobelinda
aobelinda
11 years ago

I found this funny and sane.Education should begin here ,not at the opposite end.There would be no wars or famine....if we were as inteligent as animals....human stupidity has no borders or limits.....there humans are the best....and this is the only argument i can find to have superiority above animals.Sad but true...think,before you speak,or howl to the moon....peace and love

aobelinda
aobelinda
11 years ago

Animals are above humans...they dont need stupid god to guide them in to the sin.They dont kill for money and they are far more developed as humans are.Animals also dont need comercials to told them what is good and what they need...so who is stupid and beter?Humans not for sure...if we ever were more inteligent or self aware ,that times are long gone.Most of humans are now empty,stupid shels,with materialistic vision and no friends.
Now,who are you?

John Marus
John Marus
11 years ago

The main problem with this doc is that it's boring...

Tracy Moore
Tracy Moore
11 years ago

I love life. I love animals. I wish no harm on ANYTHING.... That being said.... STUPID FRICKIN ANIMAL LOVERS!! Good lord you people drive me insane. Yeah they're cute. And I wanna project myself on my dog... I wanna anthropomorphize the cute lil monkey, that kitty cat, the snail on the under leaf of a branch too. I understand our intrinsic interconnectedness. But I also understand that I am a member of the only species currently capable of understanding that. Are we above the animals? Sure! Are we separate? Not a chance. Not yet. Does my life hold more value than your cats? Or a lab rats? YES!! IT DOES!! Why?? Because I am capable of having the thought "hmmm. I think I'd rather your cats life be on the chopping block than mine.". Because I am capable of thought... I would never say that animals don't have feelings. That's just as ludicrous. One look into the face of just about any mammal will tell you they experience lower level emotion. But they do not have conscious thought as we understand it to exist. A prerequisite for which is language. I don't necessarily agree with this, however, it's our current understanding of conscious thought.... Idk. Love animals. Love the world. I'm this close to turning into a vagitarian just because of the way the world works.

Joe Makares
Joe Makares
11 years ago

If you got to explain to someone that animals have feeling, your dealing with someone who is so oblivious to what is going on around them they may never get it no matter how rational a conversation you might atempt to have with them to explain why they do...

Hrvoje Bai?
Hrvoje Bai?
11 years ago

This pathetic film really insults ones intelligence. Information is manipulated and conclusions are based on false logic.

manfruss
manfruss
11 years ago

One other note... that budget for the Military?? That's thanks to the US who has all the guns.

manfruss
manfruss
11 years ago

I don't think of as "superiority", but humans are definitely different from many other animals. Many animals sing, I've never seen one create a symphony. Animals may paint, they don't create the Sistine Chapel. It is foolish to think ourselves above animals, we are however very different in many ways and that's cool.

Nathaneal Blemings
Nathaneal Blemings
11 years ago

What a stupid documentary, I did find it somewhat entertaining and it gave me a good laugh here and there, but it all got abit to much halfway through.

I forget what you call it when you pose a question and then debunk it, but that the original question formed for the purpose of debunking. Pretty much all the "reasons" listed for why humans are suppose to be superior is bunk and just made up by the author or taken from people with no real scientific or modern understanding of humans and/or the world.

I would be extremely suprised any scientist or knowledgable person who thinks humans are superior to other life forms would really put forth the same reasons as this person.

I just remembered its called a straw man arguement, this is how wiki describes it.

"A straw man, is a type of argument and is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position.[1] To "attack a straw man" is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by replacing it with a superficially similar yet unequivalent proposition (the "straw man"), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position."

Alot of the arguements being made are that if humans are so superior, why do other life forms do the same thing or similiar things to them? If humans were superior that doesnt mean that all other life forms are simplistic and non-complex and are miles away from humans in all ways.

sure alot of other animals can do the same things as humans, as good or even BETTER then humans, but which ones can do ALL of those things.

I could go on but my post is already long enough.

Biospherian
Biospherian
11 years ago

Race, Gender or Specie's there should be no discrimination.

That has Doc was deep.

Jo McKay
Jo McKay
11 years ago

Interesting look at 'Human Supremacy'; the sarcasm is simplistic but also good in places. I would argue that hunter/gatherers of which there are still some have great respect for all nature, knowing first hand how dependent we are. It is dis-connect from the woods, waters, wild creatures great and small, to start, that keeps humans trapped in the well marketed propaganda of the Empire Builders. 'We' are the ones who need to be rescued and freed to re-connect with all our relations.

Ben Ward
Ben Ward
11 years ago

It doesnt seem to me the animals have morals...I agree we all equally feel the same pain as animals that seems obvious...however that isnt shared by anmials they either dont seem to agree or just arent aware of it...for example a lion will attack the troat of its prey wat seemms to be a quick execution however wild dogs will just eat the stomach of its prey until it eventually bleeds to death while being ripped apart

Keith Armstong
Keith Armstong
11 years ago

Superiority is just plain stupidity, arrogance. Are you going to stop going along with the idiocy of society, their way of producing food, of building homes, etc. We've got to look at ourselves as an integral part of this planet and its systems of co-existence.

yahoo-CTPYWTDOBJJZA2OPXUGRFXS7T4
yahoo-CTPYWTDOBJJZA2OPXUGRFXS7T4
11 years ago

If you don't understand people from another country, how do you know they communicate and not just wonder around flailing their arms in the air spurting some sort of meaningless gibberish? Empirical data from hundreds of experiments about "other" animals' ability to make decisions based on their verbal/non-verbal "communication" is proof enough for them to have a perspective.

"Species by definition are different one from another.." Whose definition and define different? Now that's an opinion.
About pro's and con's, a bird's ability to navigate w/o a compass, and our inability to do so is not an opinion, it's a fact. Just one of many.

About the "self-sacrifice", would you sacrifice yourself for survival of another human? Does it mean you are superior to him/her? You may think of YOUR superiority all you want, that's the point: such thinking leads to separating yourself from the eco-system/pack/nature/group/society and eventually leads to conflict/competition for limited resources.

The moment you emphasize YOUR difference/superiority that's the moment you separate yourself from the whole. instead of embracing it. Propaganda, LOL, you are so afraid to see other point of view that everything different from your opinion is Propaganda... Maybe, maybe not.

yahoo-CTPYWTDOBJJZA2OPXUGRFXS7T4
yahoo-CTPYWTDOBJJZA2OPXUGRFXS7T4
11 years ago

Please DO innovate and use your imagination and creativity to solve one of these problems: war (since the times when one human took a stick and hit another human on the head), corruption (even in the most technologically and politically "advanced" nations), crime (even among the most righteous societies), pollution, etc.

yahoo-CTPYWTDOBJJZA2OPXUGRFXS7T4
yahoo-CTPYWTDOBJJZA2OPXUGRFXS7T4
11 years ago

I couldn't have sad it better myself.

Betty Phillips
Betty Phillips
11 years ago

I thought - finally a documentary in the top commented area not about religion. Then I clicked play and found out this is also anti-religion! I guess that's just the hot topic nowadays.

It's important to know that Christianity is actually good to other species of life. Although plants, animals and bacterias don't have souls, they are God's creatures. Maybe an atheist would not believe they are special because God made them and treat them badly.

Raúl
Raúl
11 years ago

This is a strange doc. It talks about humans being superior. It seems the documentary sees 'superior'as performing a task best (seeing, hearing, building etc). First, it mentions a very wide range of living forms which posses one or two remarkable (remarkable to us) attributes and compares all those to what a human can do, and despite that, humans may still come on top in every single one of them just not without some tools ;). All those animals/life forms have those great qualities compared to us because they are physically far superior. Like ants, they build relatively larger structures because they are relatively far far stronger and resistant (they can fall from the top and just get up) .. you can see cases like that all over the video.
can a bear heal another bear from a seemingly fatal injury ?? not to mention a broken leg equals dead in most mammals in the wild ....can they increase their natural life expectancy through vaccines and medicine, what about the fact that we dont have predators anymore (2 out of every 3 bears die in the first 3 months of life). The thing is that humans ENHANCE many abilities to levels that no other life form could, in the future we may even have them 'naturally' through DNA manipulation, humans strive to manipulate and control its surroundings, in many more years even time will be manipulated ... and yes.. most likely a robot and a mouse will be sent in the first time travel just to check out if 'micky' survives. This intelligence comes with a price, like weak and fragile bodies, total dependency in the first 4 years of life etc ..... one problem... HUMANS seem to be the only species that consistently takes care of the r*tarded and let them reproduce... for example (jersey shore ) XD

WilliamMarmol
WilliamMarmol
11 years ago

So that's how you sharpen a crap knife... Saliva. Although the story is obviously not true, I think it would be a major time and health saver for the Inuit to just run away!

Warren Gates
Warren Gates
11 years ago

I saw this quote and thought it was interesting.

Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, he said: "Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is? so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."

Warren Gates
Warren Gates
11 years ago

I think most people confuse traits useful to us with traits useful to others. For instance, intelligence, fire making, space technology, etc. all seem overall good for humans, but they are useless for increasing the survival of many other organisms.

The simple fern has easily survived since the dinosaurs and will almost certainly out survive us. Giving a fern a big brain would be a useless addition and only cause it to need more food, which it would not be able to acquire. Ferns are successful by being a conservative species. We, on the other hand, live like firecrackers.

Corbin Nevermore
Corbin Nevermore
11 years ago

Humans can create new animals. Humans can control fire. Human can explore space. The list goes on and on. I am all for a better recognition of the value of all forms of life, but to say that humans are not superior is to be in denial. Perhaps we are not as superior as we think, but yeah, we are.

Portair
Portair
11 years ago

The Focus of This film is animal rights, one thing that 99,9% of humans neglect and ignore (unless we are talking about cats and dogs). The first part of the movie is a bit boring and the narrator s voice is not good. But the main message is: all animals desire to live and all animals avoid pain. Humans are superior in some things but inferior in others. We cant consider ourselves superior just because of inteligence. If so, dogs would consider themselves superior because of their smell. Elephants would consider themselves superior because of their size, etc.
We kill each other with atomic bombs. We let childs die in the world because of maltrunition every minute. At The same time we have meat in our plates, meat from animals that were fed with grains that otherwise could have fed those malnourished children. That meat comes from animals who had a life of sacrifice and extreme pain in factory farms and slaughterhouses that we created. Do we need to eat meat? No! Should we respect other life forms? Yes! Do we? No! I always wonder why dogs have the right to be protected and can not be beaten or murdered but cows, pigs, chicken can be killed thousands every minute just because "we" like to eat them. This is imoral and is a proof that we are not that intelligent.
The reason because why i dont eat meat is the same as the one because why im against bullfighting. I dont think animal suffering justifies my amusement or my pleasure at dinner time.

ThisDarkChestOfWonders
ThisDarkChestOfWonders
11 years ago

This is a moot argument. There is no superior form of life, because all life is the same. We all came from the same thing that all other matter in the universe came from. Saying we are superior to another form of life is like saying water is more important then breathing. None of us would exist if there were no bacteria, or bees, or trees, or plankton, or spiders, or ants. We are part of an ecosystem that depends on all other parts of the ecosystem for survival, and without even a fraction of that part, most of life will die. Including us. But the bacteria wouldnt. And i bet you the ants wouldnt either. So the real debate should be what is the most important part of the ecosystem that helps support the rest of the ecosystem. And i think we can all agree that homosapiens would be dead last.

Casapu Radu
Casapu Radu
11 years ago

Thank you Warren Gates for still posting, I was getting tierd to repeat my argument indefinitely.Glad at least somme people understan what the documentary saied and what I am arguing aboat.

Shane Bradshaw
Shane Bradshaw
11 years ago

Id like to see a bear stop an asteroid from hitting earth.

Casapu Radu
Casapu Radu
11 years ago

The opposable thumb part and the walking on 2 legs, part was presented because these are the reason we developed large brains and so I thing they are a good referance.The high population is presented because it is proff for the species evolutionary succes and again I think it's a good referance.The part with the living in houses I thin it's aboat "conquering nature" and modeling it by our plans and so no beeing dependent on the old patters of behaiviour like the large part of the animal kingdom.It could of debated allot more of course but I thing the points that were debate were far from simplistic.I know I have grammar mistakes and i can live with that. The written word could be a good referance but the soul purpose of the doc. was to demonstrate that all values are objective and so they should be treated.
PS: English is my 3-rd language Io parlo anche l'Italiano

justforthisdoc
justforthisdoc
11 years ago

I created an account just to comment on this documentary. This is one of the stupidest things I have ever watched in my entire life. If you enjoy intellectual stimulation and have an intelligence level that is above that of a 6 year old, this doc is not for you. It puts forth arguments that no one has ever made, and then disproves them. It also focuses only on the negative aspects of human civilization. What about antibiotics, complex political/economic systems, and instant global access to limitless information? I'm not saying that humans are superior to other creatures, but we do posses both cognitive and logistical abilities that are seen no where else in nature. That does not mean that we are more highly evolved, just that we took a different evolutionary path. That's it. I just saved you 1 hour and 13 minutes that you would never get back...

Casapu Radu
Casapu Radu
11 years ago

I didn't contradict miself.. I changed my opinion,I no longer stand for the first one, I mentioned I am human and the ilusion of contro seems real even to me so sometimes I forget it's not... I saied that non of oure actions are in our control, not somme , none.But because I have many influances it appears I am making decizions, ok but the influences are not controled by me so it's an ilusion of control

Casapu Radu
Casapu Radu
11 years ago

Ricardo,you do not control you're wants thus you don't control you're actions, i thought it's not needed to specify this.. I understand you react to thing, like even rocks do,but i do not belive you control youreself. You do not control what you're environment is nor you're wants, .I understand conciosness as a fizical,complex thing , so you can not control it, like you do not control gravity.Thow you have an effect,you do not control.All the things you do in life you do eighter because wants,eighter because knowlage or simply reflex,and all of these are out of our controll.Tho it's nice that we have the ilusion that we control ourselfs,it gives confidance and helps survival:D

PickMyName
PickMyName
11 years ago

Brilliant documentary! Very enjoyable! The comments... just watch the doc.

Ricardo Rodrigues
Ricardo Rodrigues
11 years ago

we can't control what we see or hear or smell too... all sensory information you receive is processed by the brain, and though you're not aware of everything every single input of information is processed ... I didn't say we can control our emotions... I said they act has part of the rational process... read properly first...

"although our responses and behaviours are mostly hard-wired and subconscious when it comes to emotion..."

Neurology is the area I wont take crap from you... lazy boy :)
you said:

"...you do not control a large part of you're actions , like a human beeing..."

.... you don't control the physiological mechanisms (some you can... with training)... but you're in control of you're actions... you can even starve yourself to death if you want to... when something is important your brain brings it to your awareness... since we can't be aware of every single thing that is happening in the brain (too much information) when something is important it shifts to your "window of awareness"... so you can attend to it... emotion is a part of the homoeostatic process of the Human being... a very complex... and important one... it serves to tell you what is good for you... and what is bad for you... in a simple and elementary way... but you can act on them... you don't respond like a robot to your emotions... that´s the difference between conciousness... and self-conciousness.
We don´t drive ourselves trough emotion... we rationalize them first.

consciousness is... to know
self-awareness or self-consciousness is... to know that you know
Emotion and feeling play a major role on this... you should read the work of António Damásio for better understanding.

Of course sometimes we just react... that is a self-preservation mechanism... when something is a immediate threat... we react... the information does not become aware to us cuz you need to flee or attack in order to protect yourself... fight or flight response... all animals have it to manage potential menacing or stressful situations.

Casapu Radu
Casapu Radu
11 years ago

I don't kill them cause I am lazy...And from my experience you can control you're action but not you're emotions:PAnd it's usefull not to kill people like that since they can became usefull in time I mean like a human being you can easily change youre mind.

Casapu Radu
Casapu Radu
11 years ago

I heard that feelings is the way by wich the subconcious(aka the ancestor inside our brain) controls youre behaviour with substances,like extasy(dopamine nordadrenaline etc) And it activates on sets of behaviour not on specifics ,like beeing like in a group of people being admired, loking for a fizicaly fit mate,a mother for youre child etc, I mean you do not control a large part of you're actions , like a human beeing I mean not personally

Casapu Radu
Casapu Radu
11 years ago

Neurophisics has an ideea abouat feelings, an fizical explination

Casapu Radu
Casapu Radu
11 years ago

Fizics is something we discovered,not what we maked up.It's not a complete language but it is the language that is used to describe the universe thus universal.The only thing you cand argue aboat fizics is if the world you experience is the truth,wich can't be proven.Thow if you don't belive the world you experience is true you have nothing left in this world:d. So I tend to argue that fizics is not an subjective way of describing the world,but an universall one since you cand change the tools with which you experience the world thus you can understand almost every creature by it's own criteria.(Telescope,microscope,uv cameras, sonar(whales)radar(bats)and so on)